Society Marches On: Difference between revisions

 

Related to [[Values Dissonance]], [[Science Marches On]] and [[The Great Politics Mess Up]]. [[Eternal Prohibition]] and [[Everybody Smokes]] are specific cases.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* ''[[Camelot 3000]]'', written in the 1980s, had a still-segregated South Africa in the eponymous year, far outdoing 2001.

** It also has Sir Tristan's angsting about being reincarnated as a woman, even though her reborn lover Isolde seems quite content to contemplate a lesbian relationship, and gender-reassignment surgery is bound to be as routine as a tummy-tuck by that era even if she wasn't.

 

== Film ==

 

== Literature ==

** Apartheid-related predictions were often a bit off in this way, due mostly to outsiders imagining some sort of centuries-long, deep-seated race war. Whereas it was a recent and quickly dated policy which was mostly prolonged because it somehow wound up as part of Cold War politics. As soon as the policy was put up to vote, everyone rejected it.

* Minor but interesting aversion in [[Philip Jose Farmer]]'s ''Dayworld'', in which several male characters have traditionally female names (Dorothy, for instance), some female characters have traditionally male names (e.g., Anthony), and circumcision is next to unknown in the United States.

** ''[[The Caves of Steel (Literature)|The Caves of Steel]]'' and ''[[The Naked Sun (Literature)|The Naked Sun]]'' by [[Isaac Asimov]] both mention corporal punishment to children as a routine occurrence thousands of years in the future. Doesn't seem ''that'' likely now.

** Isaac Asimov's ''[[Foundation]]'' series has gender roles that are completely identical to the 1950s United States, at least in the early books.

*** And, of course, ''everyone'' smokes.

**** Though in the universe of ''[[The End of Eternity (Literature)|The End of Eternity]]'' (published in 1955), we see that the vast majority of the centuries in the future have non-tobacco-smoking cultures, and Twissel complains about how hard it is to find a good cigarette and a place where smoking is allowed.

* ''[http://www.webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/0743436067/0743436067__17.htm Cocoon]'', a short story by [[Keith Laumer]], has everyone living in virtual reality tanks a couple hundred years in the future. The husband "goes" to a virtual office and does virtual paperwork, while the wife sits at "home", does virtual housework and watches virtual soap operas all day. When the husband comes "home", he complains because the wife hasn't gotten around to punching the selector buttons for the evening nutripaste meal yet.

* ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' has several parts where social mores have not dated so well. One example is the alien from Betelgeuse who tries to pretend he's human, and English, by adopting what he thought was a very common name - [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Prefect Ford Prefect]. While probably funny back when the first radio serial was released, the fact that he's named after a car that hasn't been around for nearly half a century completely ruins the joke, and to date ''no'' adaptation has changed the name to something like "Ford Focus" or "Ford Fiesta". Another possible example is the claim that humans are "ape-descended life forms" that "are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea". This was back when digital watches were fairly new but not totally ubiquitous, but reading it now, can you think of ''anybody'' in a developed world that is still that impressed with digital watches?

** Interestingly, when a comic book adaptation was being written (in the early '90s or so), Adams was approached about changing the line about "digital watches" to "cell phones", and he adamantly refused, insisting that the cartoonist was missing the point. So, what ''was'' the point? Well, um... er... ah! Cell phones are actually useful devices due to their mobility, while digital watches have no advantages over regular watches. So, Adams probably considered digital watches a pointless novelty while thinking that cell phones are actually useful. Uh, you know, probably.

** As shown in the television series, the watches he was talking about used power-consuming LED displays, and so you had to push a button to see the time. The joke is probably that Douglas Adams found those types of watches impractical.

*** The franchise, naturally, retconned this in ''[[Star Trek Enterprise]]'', introducing Erika Hernandez, a no-nonsense woman who had previously served with Archer, as the captain of the second Warp 5 starship (''Columbia'' NX-02). Of course, in the 2000s, people were ready for that sort of thing.

** Notably, the original 1965 [[Pilot]] of the series included a ''female first officer'' (who even wore pants in lieu of a miniskirt). She capably commanded the Enterprise for most of the episode while the (male) captain was held captive by aliens. In fact, she was the one who dispassionately decided that letting the aliens breed humans for slavery would be unacceptable, when Captain Pike seemed willing to let it happen as part of a bargain to save the Enterprise. [[Number Two|Number One]] coldly threatened to blow everyone up -- including herself -- instead, and this was what finally convinced the aliens to abandon their plot and let everyone go. If only they let Roddenberry keep that character in the show, it would have been an ''amazing'' aversion of this trope... but [[Screwed By the Network|the network]] decided this unprecedented instance of gender equality would not go over well with the audience!

*** Note that at the time, miniskirts were often regarded as a mark of ''female empowerment'', as it flaunted a woman's right to dress sexy if she felt like it.

**** Also, the miniskirts weren't executive meddling; Roddenberry had uniforms for the crewwomen made with pants, but the actresses complained so much, he dropped the idea. They ''wanted'' the miniskirts.

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Society Marches On]]